User Guide

18 Chapter 2: Director Scripting Essentials
Literal values
A literal value is any part of a statement or expression that is to be used exactly as it is, rather than
as a variable or a script element. Literal values that you encounter in script are character strings,
integers, decimal numbers, cast member names and numbers, frame and movie names and
numbers, symbols, and constants.
Each type of literal value has its own rules.
Strings
Strings are words or groups of characters that script treats as regular words instead of as variables.
Strings must be enclosed in double quotation marks. For example, you might use strings to give
messages to the user of your movie or to name cast members. In the following statement,
Hello
and Greeting are both strings. Hello is the literal text being put into the text cast member;
Greeting is the name of the cast member.
-- Lingo syntax
member("Greeting").text = "Hello"
Similarly, if you test a string, double quotation marks must surround each string, as in the
following example:
-- Lingo syntax
if "Hello Mr. Jones" contains "Hello" then soundHandler
Both Lingo and JavaScript syntax treat spaces at the beginning or end of a string as a literal part of
the string. The following expression includes a space after the word to:
// JavaScript syntax
trace("My thoughts amount to ");
Although Lingo does not distinguish between uppercase and lowercase when referring to cast
members, variables, and so on, literal strings are case-sensitive. For example, the following two
statements place different text into the specified cast member, because
Hello and HELLO are
literal strings.
-- Lingo syntax
member("Greeting").text = "Hello"
member("Greeting").text = "HELLO"
In Lingo, the string() function can convert a numerical value into a string. In JavaScript syntax,
the
toString() method can convert a numerical value into a string.
Note: Attempting to use the toString() method in JavaScript syntax on a null or undefined value
results in a script error. This is in contrast with Lingo, in which the
string() function works on all
values, including those that are
VOID.
Numbers
In Lingo, there are two types of numbers: integers and decimals.
An integer is a whole number, without any fractions or decimal places, in the range of
-2,147,483,648 and +2,147,483,647. Enter integers without using commas. Use a minus (
-) sign
for negative numbers.